1 year into treatment you can still hit a wall

The last couple months as I have shared I seemed to get over the crest of the hill with the Lyme and have had more energy. However the last few weeks I have been battling an underlying exhaustion. I have done my best to ignore it, to overcome it, to caffeinate it, but today it really caught up to me. I went home early from work and pretty much collapsed and slept for several hours, which really doesn’t normally happen in the middle of the day.

Still, even though I am lying in bed right now after my nap feeling like a good 24 hour relationship with my mattress would be beneficial, I think there is still a distinction between exhaustion and overwhelming fatigue. I am exhausted because realistically during a work week I can’t get nine hours of sleep a night, and silly me I have actually been doing a few things in the weekends other than just staying home in bed. So I am going to listen to my body right now and just rest, I hope it will be rejuvenating enough to kick this exhaustion to the curb for now.

Another problem is I have been making some dietary mistakes. When I am overly tired it is easy for me to each for the wrong food not only because my will power is down, but also because I desperately want to eat for energy…aka things that spike glucose.

Fellow Lymies will know that a lot of us have similar autoimmune anti-candida diets, and these often fall comfortably into the perimeter of the paleo diet (minus the maple syrup, honey and dates of course). One thing I have been reading about on some paleo sites/blogs and also from Dr Mercola is kick starting your system with doing a “fat fast”. Basically you do 2-7 days of getting 90% of your calories from healthy fats, not to exceed 1,200 calories in a day. So you eat several smaller meals throughout the day of almonds, avocado, etc. This gets your body off of glucose dependence and into ketosis (body burning it’s own fat stores). Glucose and energy spikes even out, baseline energy is higher, and (yay) you lose weight. After you are done with the fat fast days you reintroduce proteins and veggies back in but keep healthy fats high.
I am really excited to try this! I feel like it will really help my baseline energy and take off those last 20 pounds. About a decade ago I did a ketone diet called Lindora with great success. This was based more on hight protein, but ketosis was still the goal. After you get past those agonizing first few days where your body is fighting to use its fuel stores, you start to feel amazing.

I do not think this is an endeavor I could have taken on even a few months ago with the Lyme, but I think my body is in a place to handle it better now, we shall see. Another good thing I see is that this may also help the CHRONIC inflammation and water retention that has plagued me for so many years. I will let you know how it goes. I am going to eat my avocado now

A Healthier me

Bio

My name is Jennifer, I have spent the last decade or so battling various health issues from gastrointestinal... to fibromyalgia... to adrenal trouble... to chronic edema..and it has taken this long to find the culprit to be Lyme disease. I am at this time 8 months into treatment, and looking at approximately another year and a half. I continue to struggle, and for every answer I find I still have another question.
From around 1990-1995 my family lived in a very toxic house and property (we did not know this when we moved in). It took years to uncover the various problems, but in brief the house was laden with 13 different kinds of mold including black mold. We were also surrounded by swamp and stagnant water. Our water source was a well, and although we eventually got a good filtration system we found out that there had been heavy metals and chemicals buried in the ground. We were all very sick for many years dealing with everything from chronic sinus infections and lung issues, to chronic fatigue. My mother developed cancer, but thankfully survived.
Now all these years later we still feel the effects, we are being treated for mold biotoxic illness ( www.survivingmold.com ), and my sister and I are battling Lyme disease and heavy metal toxins, along with other subsidiary illnesses including candida, Leaky Gut, SIBO, adrenal/thyroid/pituitary and (fill in gland or hormone here). It is a long journey, but I am blogging to connect with others, share my story, raise Lyme awareness, and hopefully share my faith.